Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill was indicted Thursday by a New Orleans grand jury on a 16-count indictment alleging intimidation and malfeasance, and the Louisiana Supreme Court issued a stay of the proceedings early Friday.
Prosecutors say Murrill told eight New Orleans officials, including Helena Moreno, the mayor, and Jason Williams, the district attorney, that they could face removal from their jobs because of their opposition to a law overhauling local courts.
Legislators approved the Republican-backed overhaul at the urging of Gov. Jeff Landry just days before Calvin Duncan was to take office; the law eliminated the elected Orleans Parish criminal court clerk position after Duncan, who spent nearly three decades in prison and has been described as exonerated, won the office with 68% of the vote and transferred the position's duties to the parish civil court clerk, preventing Duncan from taking office. Duncan is listed on the National Registry of Exonerations, and Murrill and Landry have refused to acknowledge his exoneration.
Prosecutors allege Murrill warned officials they could face removal under Louisiana's "usurper" laws and say those warnings formed the basis of the criminal charges against her.
Laurie White, the special prosecutor and a former judge prosecuting the case, said she expects it to be "very simple" and "very open and shut" and said, "We’re very interested in elected officials in New Orleans not being intimidated or threatened by letter or any other way." The court's grant of a stay came after defense filings raised concerns that White previously served as an attorney for Duncan.
Murrill moved for the stay on Thursday, and the Louisiana Supreme Court granted it early on Friday, saying she made "a compelling argument concerning the disturbing defects in the grand jury proceedings and in the trial court's handling of those proceedings." The order said the stay allows Murrill to "assert any and all necessary defensive pleadings, including motions to quash" and "shall not prevent the filing of motions for the recusal of either the special prosecutor or the trial judge, or responses thereto."
The grand jury return was announced amid a sealed courtroom in New Orleans after Judge Leon Roche ordered the room closed, and news media members waiting in the courtroom were escorted out. A local station that protested the closure reported that an investigative producer, Danny Monteverde, and the station's attorney, Elana Beiser, were handcuffed and removed from the courtroom and from an outside hallway. A court spokesperson later said grand jurors must be physically present when indictments are returned and that confidentiality protects their identities so they can deliberate "freely, objectively and without fear of public exposure."
Murrill posted on X calling the indictment "retaliatory, meritless, and unconstitutional," said she would immediately appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court and wrote, "I will not back down. I will continue enforcing the law, fighting corruption, and doing the job the people of Louisiana elected me to do." Bond for Murrill was set at $400,000 on Thursday, according to court records.
Gov. Jeff Landry defended Murrill, said he would pardon her "as fast as the law allows," called the grand jury a "kangaroo grand jury" and the New Orleans criminal justice system "a circus at its finest," and ordered the State Police to begin investigating alleged improprieties in the grand jury proceedings based on information in a motion filed by Murrill. The Republican Attorneys General Association called the indictment "as outrageous as it is dangerous" and said Murrill was simply "issuing a legal opinion and warning public officials about the law" as part of her official duties; critics, the association said, saw her statements as an attempt to intimidate officials into accepting the law.